Elder Peery's Mission in Nashville: Week 22 in the Field: Better Work and Piano for Primary

1. Gallatin and Gallatin Spanish districts combined photo.

(Third row left to right: Elder Black, Sister Tagilala, Elder Womack, Elder Moeller, Elder Hohneke, Elder Cullum, and Elder Colver with his apple carving.

Second row left to right: Sister Squire, Elder Peery with a pumpkin carving of the Angel Moroni, Hermana Cruz, Hermana Dansie with a pumpkin carving of CTR or Choose The Right, Sister Williams, Sister Brown with their Tree of Life pumpkin.

Front row from left to right: Elder Alarcon, Sister West with her fake pumpkin, and Sister Penrod.)

This week was a lot of fun. We actually really improved and knocked in 16 lessons which was a new record in the area for about three months. A lot of it was just people being home and actually finding new people to teach. It really boosted our confidence. Another thing that is really good to report is that the members are getting even more excited with missionary work with several less actives coming back to church. Some hadn't even been for almost 20 years! It was a great sight to see.

A few days before Halloween we had a district meeting where we were supposed to bring our carved pumpkins. Unfortunately Elder Moeller's chipmunk had dried out and looked pretty terrible. Mine wasn't too bad since I didn't make too many cuts. Out of my entire district I was the only one who brought a good pumpkin. Elder Colver carved an apple which while impressive, didn't count. In the other district only the sisters and hermanas brought pumpkins. One set carved the entire tree of life scene which was really cool.

We had a great lesson with our major investigator who is into the study of the scriptures vs the actual performance of what the scriptures say. After several big discussions, we've finally deduced that he does not believe the restoration of the gospel is happening and that we are still in a state of apostasy. He has really gotten sucked in to the book of Daniel, which while study is important, you should honestly try to be living what the teachings say as well. A member we brought over with us encouraged us to have one whole lesson on the book of Daniel and then we will be moving on. I'm bracing for it because Daniel has some pretty complex stuff.

On Halloween we had a fun experience over at a member's house. She made an entire Halloween themed dinner by eating a head (meat loaf with bacon), fried skin and pus (chips and guacamole), skin grafts (chicken quesadillas), and fingers and toes (meat and cheese combined with French fries and tater tots. Afterwards, President asked for all missionaries to be in for the night by 6 p.m.. Apparently we can't go trick or treating as missionaries. Ha!

Other than that not much else happened this week. Shortly around Halloween I came down with a really bad cold. I couldn't sleep for several days and when you're a missionary, that's a really rough lifestyle. I feel that I am near the end of it but who knows. Tomorrow I'm going on exchange which is always interesting. And in my Bible challenge (reading the Bible cover to cover before Christmas) I am in1st Corinthians and should finish the whole thing by the end of November.

This past Sunday, I played the piano during the third hour of primary. It was pretty humbling since I barely remembered the songs. One song the kids are learning is Called to Serve which is basically the missionary anthem. The chorister is amazing cause she is having the kids start to be missionary minded by thinking about the meaning of the songs. It's always cute to see all their hands shoot up when asked "Who wants to be a missionary when they grow up?" I stumbled along and for not playing the piano too much, it wasn't too bad. At least I didn't have to play crazy hymns like True to the Faith.

Anywho, hope all of ya'll are doing well. Thank you for your emails and letters. I really appreciate it.

Have a great week—

Elder Peery

Here are some photos from the week: